Independent UK: Foreign Office officials thought Iraq war 'illegal'

[marmar]

Whistleblower: Foreign Office officials thought war 'illegal'
Chilcot inquiry will be told Lord Goldsmith's top lawyer advised invasion was against the law

By Brian Brady, Whitehall Editor


A senior Foreign Office lawyer who quit in protest at the invasion of Iraq will this week lay bare the sharp divisions within the Blair administration and its Whitehall advisers as Britain careered towards war in 2003.

On Tuesday, three days before Tony Blair faces the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, Elizabeth Wilmshurst will make perhaps the most explosive contribution to date by revealing the confusion and infighting between officials and ministers over the legality of deposing Saddam Hussein without United Nations support.

Her first public account of the circumstances leading to her dramatic resignation threatens to permanently undermine the Government's insistence that it was united behind the fateful decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq in March 2003.

The Independent on Sunday understands that Ms Wilmshurst will tell the Iraq inquiry that she was not "a voice in the wilderness" in harbouring doubts over the legitimacy of military action without UN backing. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/whistleblower-foreign-office-officials-thought-war-illegal-1877348.html